Thursday, June 15, 2017

Chuck Todd: Gingrich. Boy, I Don't Know...

On the Twitter today, Chuck Todd -- host of "Meet the Press" and the Political Director for NBC News -- is once again "amazed" to discovered another fact of American political life about which Liberal have been clamoring for the last quarter of a century:

Because Chuck Todd has apparently been living under a cabbage leaf for the last several decades, here is an excellent article in Crooks and Liars by my lovely wife that may help the host of "Meet the Press" and the Political Director for NBC News catch up on the basics of American political history generally and Newt Gingrich's long and depraved history of slander and conspiracy mongering specifically

Newt Gingrich Capitalizes On Tragedy, Blames Liberals

And here, from 2012, is my brief explanation of "The Gingrich Rules": The Beltway media's secret mutual agreement to go right on granting Gingrich the perks and privileges of being Respected Political Thinker no matter how reckless and repulsive his behavior becomes.

In the game of professional punditry there also clearly exists a special set of rules designed with one person on mind. Or, rather, one sort of person: Conservatism's parade of bomb-throwing, hate-mongering, race-baiting bottom feeders. That breed which makes their daily bread from grifting the Pig People by generating an endless flood of books, magazine articles, broadcasts, speeches and videos all telling the GOP base over and over again that them their bigotries are noble and their paranoia is patriotic.

Of course, part of the downside of wallowing in the wingnut sewer and trafficking in slander and lies is that, sooner or later, you become a toxic mess. Your stink becomes unacceptable to the general public, which s where the Sunday morning talk shows -- the Mouse Circus -- comes in. Because despite having long ago devolved into a sinkhole of Beltway centrist twaddle, it is still viewed by altogether too many people as a bastion of Very Serious people -- it's the strip-mall of political opinion where casual shoppers go to feel smart and validated.

And so a bargain is struck; the bottom feeders deliver a temporary hike in the only thing these show's owners really care about -- audience share -- and, in exchange for being teevee friendly and keeping the worst of their batshit crazy on a leash for a few minutes, their Mouse Circus deburrs the bottom feeders' public image, replates and burnishes their credibility and temporarily transfuses them with Seriousness, which can then be redeemed at ten times its face value back among the Pig People.

And in the key to that bargain we find "The Gingrich Rules": an agreement that the moderator will never, ever ask the bomb-throwing, hate-mongering, race-baiting goon sitting directly across from them a single question about their bomb-throwing, hate-mongering or race-baiting activities. Instead they will be represented to the public merely as a Conservative commentator or talk radio host or pundit who, at worst, might be known for some "controversial" opinions, which the moderator will never bothers to explicate...